Income, Inequality, and Educational Success: New Evidence about Socioeconomic Status and Educational Outcomes

Recent evidence demonstrates that the academic achievement gap between children from high- and low-income families has risen substantially in recent decades in the US, as has the disparity in college completion by family income. Indeed, the income achievement gap is now much larger than the black-white achievement gap, a reversal from the pattern 50 years ago, when black-white educational disparities dominated socioeconomic disparities (see figure below).

Although socioeconomic status has long been a strong predictor of children’s educational and social outcomes, these trends suggest that socioeconomic status has recently become increasingly important in determining children’s life chances. This conference aims to bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines (including Education, Child Development, Sociology, Economics, and Demography, for example) to consider the causes and consequences of these trends. A subset of the papers presented at the conference will be included in an edited volume.

Conference Committee

The conference planning and advisory committee includes:

• Sean F. Reardon (chair)
• Harry Brighouse
• Greg Duncan
• David Grusky
• Sandy Jencks
• Susanna Loeb

The conference is sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences and the American Education Research Association, with additional support from the Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis and the Stanford Poverty Center.